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The Color of Change: Teams, Towns and the Pursuit of Something Better

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The Color of Change: Teams, Towns and the Pursuit of Something Better

By Graham Ruthven May 11, 2012 12:18 amMay 11, 2012 12:18 am

Soccer is much more than just a game, or so we’re told. There are soccer clubs who pride themselves on this mantra, implying that to discount all that happens away from the field would be to insult the very fabric of their being.

Nick Potts/Press Association, via Associated PressA plan to change the color of Cardiff City’s traditional blue jerseys to red was abandoned after protests by the club’s fans, but it might not have raised eyebrows in an American league.

However, what happens away from the field has increasingly become a stain in that fabric. Soccer is often called a results business, but modern circumstances dictate that it often be considered more a business business. It’s an attitude embodied by Newcastle United’s owner, Mike Ashley, who infuriated his club’s fans by renaming St. James’ Park stadium after his sporting goods business, and by the Glazers’ hostile takeover of Manchester United in 2005, which has since seen the club being used as a cash-cow to reduce the family’s crippling personal debt.

But even the most hardened capitalist among soccer administrators must have questioned the plans of Cardiff City’s majority owner, the Malaysian businessman Vincent Tan, when he announced that he wanted to completely rebrand the club in time for next season. Tan’s plan would have seen the Championship side replace their blue home kit of 103 years with a red one, complete with a new crest incorporating the Welsh national symbol of a dragon to match a new nickname, The Red Dragons. All of this was designed to make the club, known to all as the Bluebirds, more marketable and appealing to fans in Asia, where the color red and the symbolism of dragons carry cultural prestige and pertinence.

Tan promised to inject £100 million into the club’s squad and training facilities in return for the changes, but abandoned the plan Thursday in the face of rallying defiance from fans.

But what makes soccer fans so opposed to what would be considered a natural process of evolution in any other industry? Why were Cardiff fans so outraged at the thought of their club’s refreshing its look?

The truth is soccer retains a unique identity separate to other industries. Elsewhere in business, rebranding can be an effective tool for a profitable rejuvenation, but in soccer it seldom achieves the desired effect, as fans of MK Dons will attest. Standard capitalist values and practices don’t always translate directly to soccer. It’s why successful businessmen don’t usually make good team owners.

Clubs like Chelsea and Manchester City, whose traditional status as teams of modest achievement were altered by foreign oil billions, are often taunted by opposition fans for a perceived lack of history. Chelsea fans have even been known to ironically chant, “We ain’t got no history.” But all clubs have history, which sees them tied to a community, much like a church or community center. They are social hubs as much as they are sports teams.

Those in charge of the sport have a tendency to see the structure of the game from above, sometimes neglecting how decisions at the top affect those at the bottom. Even FIFA itself has become culpable of such disregard, having awarded the 2022 World Cup to Qatar, a nation of less than 2 million inhabitants that forbids the consumption of alcohol and is notorious for the suppression of women’s rights.

The perspective of the soccer’s administrators and owners is often in direct opposition to that of the fans. Supporters have become accustomed to their clubs’ being used as a vehicle for profit, but now they face the prospect of their teams’ becoming the very embodiment of commercialism.

In M.L.S. and other North American leagues, rebranding and even the relocation of franchises is not the alien concept that it is in Europe, with one such case seeing the Metrostars relaunched as the Red Bulls in 2006.

What difference has it made? Do the supporters miss the team’s original Metrostars identity?

“A good number of fans abandoned the New York soccer franchise when it became the Red Bulls and won’t be coming back any time soon,” said Tim Hall, a board member of the club’s Empire Supporters Club. “The reaction to the rebranding was split. On the one hand Red Bull has deep pockets financially, which people hoped would lead to more high profile players and ultimately, a championship.

“On the other hand, the Metrostars name was, and is, our legacy, our history, and to see that removed in favor of the ever-increasing corporatization of sports was a bitter pill to swallow.”

“Yes, we now play in a soccer-specific stadium, and yes, we now have global stars like Thierry Henry and Rafa Marquez who play for the team, but one thing that certainly hasn’t been a benefit has been success on the field. Call the team Metrostars or Red Bulls or Tony’s Pizza Shop and Soccer Club — it hasn’t won a championship, and ultimately that must be the one over-riding measure.”

If Tan’s blueprint for Cardiff’s future had been approved, and the newly nicknamed Red Dragons had begun writing a new history of success and achievement, would anyone have missed the old Bluebirds identity if the new one was, frankly, better? After all, the most successful and iconic soccer team of the Premier League era underwent its own rebranding program when a wealthy businessman took charge of the club and insisted it should ditch its original kits and colors for a new look and a new name.

Are there any Manchester United supporters who feel particularly aggrieved that their Newton Heath beginnings were abandoned so readily?

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